Golovkin's Handlers Want More Activity, Give Canelo Deal Status

By Steve Kim

After defeating Daniel Jacobs on Saturday night in defense of his WBC, WBA, IBO, IBF middleweight titles, there is talk of Gennady Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) of returning on June 10th in his home country of Kazakhstan against undefeated WBO belt-holder, Billy Joe Saunders.

Which is something that Abel Sanchez, who trains Golovkin, is all for.

"I think he needs to fight three, four times this year so that he can stay sharp," he told BoxingScene.com as he was headed back up to Big Bear, California. "When Mike Tyson was at his best he was fighting every five to eight weeks so I think these guys take so much time off that it's difficult to stay as sharp as they could be if they're fighting often."

Tom Loeffler, the managing director of K2 Promotions said on Saturday night at the Madison Square Garden about that possibility - "We'll have to see how Gennady feels next week and we'll have to see what the options are out there for him."

The issue at this point is would they take such a risk with a huge payday looming against Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) in September? Or if a deal is struck with Golden Boy Promotions does that mean a homecoming fight for Golovkin will be tabled?

"Well....that's a big if," said Loeffler.

So just how close are the two sides to hammering out an agreement?

"We've agreed o a lot of points and there's still a lot points that are outstanding so my gut feel is that that fight is big enough financially that there's no reason why it shouldn't happen but at the same time, unless there's something agreed upon, nobody can rely on it,'' said Loeffler.

Canelo returns on May 6th, when he takes on countryman Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.